VA: Veteran suicides highest in 2006

[unhappycamper]

VA: Veteran suicides highest in 2006
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Sep 10, 2008 5:37:24 EDT

WASHINGTON — Suicide rates for young male Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans were highest in 2006, according to statistics to be released Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 2006, the last year for which records are available, figures show there were about 46 suicides per 100,000 male veterans ages 18 to 29 who use VA services. That compares with about 20 suicides per 100,000 men of that age who are not veterans, VA records show.

The statistics accompany the release of a study conducted by a group of mental experts appointed by VA Secretary James Peake to investigate the department’s efforts to track and prevent suicides among veterans.

“We’ve been telling Congress and the for a long time is that what we have seen are increasing numbers of mental health issues that have not been adequately addressed,” said Dave Autry, spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans.

VA records show that 141 veterans who left the military after Sept. 11, 2001, committed suicide from 2002 to 2005. In the year that followed, another 113 of these Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans killed themselves.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/gns_vetsuicide_090908/%2e